Footage shot with the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K | http://tinyurl.com/jvqzq7d

by Kyle Kull

A few weeks ago I gave a profile of the camera company Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, which has recently been making an impact on the world of digital cinema. Today I would like to give another profile of an even younger camera company, Blackmagic Design.

http://tinyurl.com/lgz3kxu

At first glance, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, their newest model, looks similar to the common DSLR camera, however slicker and more modern. The large display that is conveniently located on the back of the camera can be used to view the image you are currently recording, or the footage that you have previously recorded to the SSD port, as well as use the touchscreen display to adjust your camera settings. Other cameras, such as the Red and other digital production cameras, require an external display in order to view playback. As for quality, the Blackmagic can record the image at 13 stops, giving the final product a professional grade quality. This means that no matter the lighting of the environment in which you are recording, the Blackmagic will capture a dynamic range of colors and shades. This gives the filmmaker some freedom in his shooting, allowing him to maneuver around his environment without having to worry about checking his lighting quality or exposure. To add even more versatility to the camera operator, the camera weighs only 3.75 lbs, minimizing the usual bulky nature of a production camera.

A large component of why this camera has impressed digital filmmakers is the software that accompanies the camera. Included with the Blackmagic is the full version of DaVinci Resolve, a high-end color grading system popular with many professional studio colorists. Although you will need to do some research in order to produce a high quality colored image, this inclusion certainly gives the filmmaker an advantage. Furthermore, the camera supplies its operator with the ability to store the images on the camera's SSD in a variety of different formats (CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes, DNxHD). These expansive features to the camera are offers that most digital cameras on the market lack and could possibly lead to more all-inclusive machines in the future within digital filmmaking.There have been some weaknesses to the camera, however. The most pressing issues are the necessity of file storage capabilities and the rolling shutter. Shooting in uncompressed RAW can cause the SSD card to fill up relatively quickly, which makes storage of the files significantly more important. If shooting with this camera, make sure that you have access to large amounts of storage. You can however shoot in ProRes or DNxHD, which are both compressed and can give you a greater amount of file space for your footage on each SSD card. The rolling shutter is also a negative feature. This is most often seen in DSLR's, and can effect the quality of a moving image, particularly when something is moving up or down. This can cause the image to become distorted, as seen in the fan below. While these weaknesses in the camera can cause problems, the low price of the camera makes up for these somewhat avoidable irritants.

http://www.ptgrey.com/support/kb/data/1-1-5_1.jpg

As mentioned before, the price of the camera is low, costing only about $2,000, which is cheap for a production level camera such as this. You can also buy the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, which, as the name suggests, let's you shoot 4K feature films, rather than the 2.5K of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This camera comes at $4,000.

The Blackmagic aims to provide filmmakers with an affordable camera with a professional level of quality to the image. While this digital camera derives much of its functionality from DSLR's and other less professional cameras, the software as well as the image quality maximizes its capabilities, making it one of the most competitive machines on the market. Because these camera's were only released in July 2013, there are no current scheduled films using Blackmagic, but keep your eyes open for news on the cameras, particularly from Indie filmmakers. Hopefully this can inspire other digital camera developers to continue to improve on their competitors already impressive products.To check out some Blackmagic Cinema Camera footage, see the video below.